An interview with Christchurch based interior & architectural photographer Dennis Radermacher

“Early in my career I leaned into the Japanese philosophy of kaizen, or continuous improvement. The goal is to constantly optimize every aspect of my work. Huge changes are hard, but improving 1% at a time yields big results over long periods of time. These improvements do not have to be creative, they can relate to peripheral issues like workflow improvements.”

Dennis Radermacher is a late convert to the world of architecture and design. Born and raised in Germany, he moved to New Zealand in his early 30s – a catalyst for leaving behind a career in computer engineering. His desire to bring New Zealand’s beauty home drove Dennis to enter the swashbuckling world of photography.

Drawing from roots in landscape photography, Dennis’ translation of architectural space and light is imbued with emotion. The interaction of people and environments within the built world is the playground in which he now feels most at home. His style embraces bold, graphic compositions, punctuated by a splash of colour.

Dennis’ work is regularly featured in major publications including ArchitectureNZ and Home, Archdaily and HOUSES. He is involved with a wide range of industry bodies as a contributor to award-winning projects.

His work as a part-time columnist, educator, and freelance ‘gun-for-hire’ has taken him from the great New Zealand outdoors to the skies above Antarctica on a NASA research mission. Dennis aspires to take on more projects in the Pacific Islands, where he can combine his love for travel and architectural photography.

Can you tell us what has been keeping you occupied recently throughout 2021 and what your plans for 2022 and beyond?

Hi Pete! First of all a big thank you for inviting me to do this takeover.

You are catching me in the middle of New Zealand's first big lockdown of 2021. We are boldly trying to eliminate the Delta variant, which might be feasible given that we are a tiny nation in the middle of a big ocean. Seeing what the rest of the world had to go through over the last year, we have been truly blessed in our hermit kingdom.

This year I dug my heels even deeper into large civic and education projects, with the odd residential work sprinkled in for variety. Schools in particular have been a prominent feature. I must admit that I had never seen my career going in that direction, yet here we are.

Over the next few years, I would love to expand internationally, and capture projects especially in the Pacific islands. Recently, I almost secured a job capturing New Zealand's World Expo pavilion in Dubai, but with New Zealand's travel restrictions in place, I might have been stranded overseas and therefore had to pass on the opportunity. So considering the battle the world currently finds itself in, international projects might have to take a back-seat for a few years.

How exciting that would’ve been, not the stranded part though. Yes, I think we all can’t wait for normal travel to continue. I may even be leaving the UK for the first time in two years in a few weeks!

Could you tell us a bit more about your past, your education, ethos and how you approach your work currently?

If you had told younger me that I would be an architectural photographer in New Zealand one day, I would have had a good laugh! I started out as a computer engineer in Germany.

After moving to New Zealand I felt it was time for a change, so I took my interest in photography and ran with it. I explored various subject matters for a while and ended up settling on architecture, which seemed like a natural fit. Dealing primarily with buildings and light really connected with my love for landscape photography.

I am still not sure if being entirely self-taught is something that I should celebrate or be embarrassed for.

Spending many years around design professionals has allowed me to get a deeper understanding of architecture and its interactions with people and environments. I have to thank my clients for being quite indulgent with my never-ending questions.

Us Germans are really straightforward in terms of our approach to work. I just try to do the best-possible job while over-delivering on my promises.

I understand that in regards to being self taught. I still sometimes get imposter syndrome, but it is getting better with experience. And yes, I’ve learnt loads from my clients too. I’ve pushed myself to see things through their eyes as well and learn new and exciting perspectives of projects which can only be a good thing.

How do you go about getting work and what do you find is the best solution you've found?

The first year was really hard. Cold-calling and emailing did not come naturally, and neither do business network meetings. These days, I am quite lucky in that the work seems to find me.

I try reminding my amazing clients that I'm still out here with a very nice newsletter, if I may say so myself, and the odd social media post. I could do more in terms of marketing, but it is usually the first chore that I drop when my schedule gets busy.

We sound very similar. I always say that I’m going to improve my marketing but then jobs pop up and I remain busy so I always think ‘mañana’.

Where do you see the future of photography heading, not only in our genre but as a whole?

Computational photography is probably going to play an ever-increasing role. We can already see that trend in ever smarter filters and AI based algorithms that do a lot of the grunt work. The quality does not stand up to professional standards yet, but for a lot of casual applications features like sky replacements or fake shallow depth-of-field already work reasonably well.

Ha ha, I had to Google that!

At work, every now and then someone brandishes their phone at me, hinting that it will soon replace me. While that might be the case for hardware and software one day, technology is really only one of many ingredients to the magic created by photographers. Considering the large number of other factors that have to align, from organising access to working out weather conditions and models, I'm not too concerned.

At the end of the day, whatever person or robot is holding future smartphones, will still have to understand architecture, light and composition. I am confident that the same applies to most other genres.  

Speaking of concerns, I really have little desire to stretch my wings into videography. Requests in that area are certainly increasing, and that's where I feel younger creatives who have a foot in both fields have an edge over us slow-to-adapt old folks.

I can understand that. I do have a love for videography as I wanted to be a DOP and in a past life was making short films in London in the ‘00s. I’m slowly getting back into it, but not sure if my work is up to scratch with my photography portfolio yet. My clients seem happy, although I’m still waiting on a whole project to film which would be great, if not daunting with balancing a photography & video shoot. You need a very different head on…

What is the interior and architectural scene like in Christchurch, is this where do you do most of your work?

Since a good chunk of Christchurch had to be rebuilt after the devastating 2011 earthquake, the city has a larger than average design community. I was lucky to start my business right around the time when things were kicking into gear, so I managed to pick up a few good clients that stuck with me to this day.

Funnily enough my work has slowly shifted away from Christchurch in recent years. The larger type of civic projects that I now specialize in are spread all over the country, so I have spent more time in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, than at home.

That was so awful, I happened to be in Christchurch a few weeks before the earthquake. It was such a beautiful and vibrant city. It was so sad to see the state it was in after the quake. Thrilled things are getting back on track.

As a photography community we love a bit of gear talk, could you tell us what equipment you have in your bag and enlighten those who aren't familiar a little bit more about your process.

My go-to work horse is a Fujifilm GFX50S with adapted Canon TS-E lenses. I capture 90% of my work with two lenses, the Canon 24mm TS-E II and the 50mm TS-E. I shoot these lenses across the full medium-format sensor as well as in full-frame crop mode, which essentially gives me four lenses at the convenience of only carrying around two.

For longer shots I compliment this setup with a Fujifilm X-T3 with a 70-210 full-frame equivalent lens. Sneaky plug: I have some great gear reviews on my blog that go into how this somewhat idiosyncratic setup performs on location.

Aerial photography also plays an important role in my work, and my DJI Mavic 2 Pro is the perfect blend of image quality and portability.

In comparison, process is a far more complex topic, but my approach to compositing probably stands out. I enjoy crisp detail in all parts of my image, so I spend a lot of time blending differently exposed images together to reduce noise and avoid clipping.

Throw in image variations for differently polarized surfaces to remove reflection, and usually a range of options for models moving through the image, and my TIFF files are probably chunkier than average.

I find that an image is rarely made by one or two factors. Mostly, a whole bouquet of factors has to come together to nudge an image from good to great.

Wow, what a beast. A friend of mine Adam just traded in all his Nikon gear for the GFX50S, a daunting day but he is not regretting it. I feel for my image quality to improve I think a similar move will happen in the not too distant future. I’ll wait and see what the Nikon Z9 is like before making any life changing decisions.

Do you feel that you're happy with the work you produce?

What a cheeky question to ask a photographer, Pete!

What can I say, I’m a cheeky guy…

I'm a perfectionist when it comes to my work. Not having full control of a shoot can lead to dissatisfaction with the result. The weather usually being the main culprit there.

Otherwise, I constantly swing back and forth between mental states. One week I enjoy my work and the next I will suffer a bout of imposter syndrome. While that is not exactly pleasant, it helps me eyeing my work critically and making adjustments where necessary.

I think it can only be a good things. Well, that’s what I tell myself.

Do you have any advice for aspiring photographers to keep motivated and pushing yourself forward?

The standard recommendation seems to be capturing personal work. I must admit that I have fallen short in that area lately. Outside personal projects, I find it important to just walk away from photography, especially where it comes to comparing one's work. It rarely leads to happy outcomes when done on a daily basis.

Early in my career I leaned into the Japanese philosophy of kaizen, or continuous improvement. The goal is to constantly optimize every aspect of my work. Huge changes are hard, but improving 1% at a time yields big results over long periods of time. These improvements do not have to be creative, they can relate to peripheral issues like workflow improvements.

Freeing up mental capacity on minor issues contributes to better creative outcomes. As an example, I recently invested in lighter gear, which resulted in less fatigue, allowing me to be a more attentive photographer throughout a long location shoot.

I like the sound of kaizen, I might need to get myself some of that.

I think we should talk a bit about copyright.....How do you go about educating your clients about licensing and is there anything we can be doing better to inform our clients better?

I make it clear to new clients that they are purchasing a license that allows them certain non-transferrable use-cases. Beyond that, I do not lean into the topic too hard during pre-sales, since I do not want to scare anyone off by preaching about an issue that few clients have any interest in.

When clients receive their image download, the delivery email will contain a highlighted reminder about licensing and copyright in plain English. The download package will contain the same.

Some clients are very well educated in this regard, but the images will inevitably find their way from a client's server to a third party. How exactly this happens is never clear, and that's where one of my less enjoyable tasks begins.

I'm signed up with a copyright scanning service that will alert me to the unlicensed usage of my images. I give offenders the choice of payment or removal. While I do not enjoy this part of my job, it is a good income stream during slower periods.

Here are a few of the entertaining categories of excuses that I often receive in response:

·        We thought that images on the internet were free

·        Someone gave us the images for free

·        We are connected to the project and therefore entitled to free images

·        We do not know where they came from, we just found them on our server

·        We don't have the budget / are a small business

·        Someone else already paid you for the images

·        It's my building, I own the copyright (after signing a property release form)

·        The intern made a mistake

After a while I just had to develop a sense of humour about more combative offenders, especially the serial kind.

Classic! I think I’ve heard all the above. I’m adopting a softly softly approach as I hate conflict. Some clients get it and respect it, others it goes in one ear and out the other.

Where do you draw your inspiration from and how do you go about creating your stylised look?

These days, I mostly know where I want to take a project creatively, but shaking the Instagram tree gently will occasionally produce inspiration rather than anxiety. Otherwise, I am not as focused on filling my brain with ideas as other creatives might be. I just seem to find inspiration organically.  

Where my look comes from is an excellent question that I wonder about myself. I tried changing it several times, yet what I edit always ends up looking like another typical example of my work. Unfortunately, it comes entirely from the gut, so I do not have a very good answer. At a push, I would say that I respect my histogram and lean into colour. I want my images to feel warm, nuanced, and full of life and light.

Nice, I like that. I think I could say a similar thing that I trust my gut. I’ve tried to reinvent my work a few times and I think I’ve started to find my own style a little I think. Like you say, it is never a good thing to compare your work to others but only look for inspiration.

Do you have a favourite thing you like to shoot and why?

When I photographed my first few schools, I was terrified. I did not know how to handle kids, and working in chaotic environments that I had little control over was anathema to my preferences. But with each school I let go a little more. And as I became to enjoy the work, school environments slowly managed to carve out a special place in my heart. New Zealand is investing a lot into positive, nourishing school environments that I wish I could have attended as kid.

Sounds awesome.

What would say the highlight of your career would be to this point?

That trophy easily goes to Auckland War Memorial Museum. It is one of New Zealand's most highly regarded historical buildings, and I must admit that I had a very soft, squishy moment when my client asked me to photograph it. The project had it all: Extremely tight scheduling, ongoing construction work that we had to photograph around, a truckload of volunteer models, and the pressure of no second chances.

Did I mention the fire alarm that upended our exhaustive schedule? After 14 hours of shooting we crawled out of the building, tired but happy. Good times!

Oh no! I loved the new Nelson airport when visiting. Big fan of that and NZ architects as a whole.

Do you have any favourite photographers that inspire you and anyone you think we should be keeping an eye out for?

Tom Blachford's architectural moonlight series mesmerizes. I admire how he created his own sub-genre. His mid-century California series is outstanding, and I really should buy a print!

How funny, I was up at The Photography Show in London a few weeks ago and his work was by far the best in show. I reached out and told him so, and he was very kind in giving up a bit of his time to talk through his technique and give me a few tips. That Californian series is incredible.

Lastly, what have you learnt and taken away from the past years events?

Maybe, that when the going gets rough, it is best to just focus on doing life a day at a time. Eventually, we climb out of the valley and on to the next summit.

 Nicely put.

A big thanks to Dennis for lending us his time for the takeover and interview.

To see more of Dennis’s work click on the following links - Website - Instagram